One Last Trip to Aperture
by VampiraFangstein
Summary: Chell is taken in by a previous Aperture employee and decides she has to go rescue Wheatley from space. Chelley
1. Chapter 1 Karla the Complainer

Portal 2 Chelley Fan fiction all characters belong to the Valve Corporation

One Last Trip to Aperture This story was written by Karly

**Chapter 1**- Karla the Complainer

Chell was finally free from Aperture and with her best friend. She wanted to scream with joy but her throat was sore from so long without talking. Instead she ran over to her Companion Cube and repeatedly said, "I'm sorry." She picked it up with some difficultly and went through the field of wheat surrounding her. "You know Companion Cube this field of wheat reminds me of, wait no more Aperture Science. You will be the only friend I have from there. When I find new clothes I'll burn this old Aperture testing uniform." Chell continued to walk while thinking about the new life she would have.

After walking for many hours Chell saw someone in the distance. She began to run towards the one person she had seen in many years. It was an older woman who looked very surprised to see Chell.

"Aperture Laboratories," the woman said reading Chell's tank top, "I used to work there back in the eighties but that was a long time ago. My name is Karla; I quit right after Mr. Johnson became sick."

"That's interesting," Chell responded "but I decided not to have anything to do with Aperture anymore."

" Oh, I can understand that." The woman said, "In the short time I worked there I realized the place was run by lunatics, whatever they invented must have been dangerous." The words dangerous and lunatics stuck out in Chell's mind that was how GLaDOS had described her when she let her go.

"Anyway," Karla continued, "you seem disoriented. Would you like me to take you to a town? Get you settled?" That was exactly what Chell wanted, to live the rest of her life away from Aperture and its insane machinery. She nodded and Karla led her to town jabbering on about how nice it was there and how her cat continually got into trouble. The town was much closer than Chell thought it would although she was happy because her arms were aching from carrying the cube.

"This is my house," Karla said, "and this is my trouble making cat." She motioned to the lazy cat lying on her chair. Karla then proceeded to show Chell the rest of her small house noting what every room was. "This is the room you will stay in, the guest room. You can stay here until you are able to support yourself. And Chell I know you want to completely forget about Aperture but will you tell me what happened? Just once, I promise I won't ask about it ever again." Chell sighed. She figured someone would want to know. She began from Bring Your Daughter to Work Day.

Karla listened and was very interested. She looked at her cat that had crawled into her lap when Chell mentioned GLaDOS' cat experiment. She was surprised when Chell mentioned Doug Rattmann. Karla frowned when she talked about Caroline running the facility. When Chell finished it was rather late. Karla sat for a while just thinking about how lucky she was that she quit before they completed the A.I.

"Well you must be starving. Is there anything specific you would like?" Karla asked realizing that Chell probably hadn't eaten real food in many years.

"Do you have any cake?" Chell wanted her cake.

"I don't have one already made but don't worry I'll make one. That will take a while though. Is there something else I could get you?

"Pizza?" Chell might have looked like a grown woman but she was still a child at heart.

"Of course, I have some frozen pizza for when my friend brings her grandson over. Come down to the living room and I'll put a movie on for you." Chell ate her pizza slowly; it tasted much better than neurotoxin. The movie Karla put on was a romance. Chell didn't care for it as much as Karla did. "I love romances," Karla said when she put the movie in, "they remind me that true love is in the world." It wasn't until after the movie was over that the cake was done.

Chell had a large slice of the Black Forest Cake and a glass of milk. After that Chell went to sleep with the Companion Cube on the floor beside the bed with a blanket covering it because Chell said it would get cold. She dreamed about space and felt guilty when she woke up. She made plans to go to Aperture and get Wheatley back once she was settled. Chell got what she deserved, cake, but Wheatley didn't deserve space forever with two of the most annoying people in the world.

Authors Note: Karla is an actual character in Portal 2. See if you can find her.


	2. Chapter 2 Help Wanted

**Chapter 2**- Help Wanted

In the morning Chell was woken up by the smell of hash browns. She walked down to the kitchen where Karla was placing the meal on their plates. Karla was wearing her work uniform, khaki pants and an orange shirt with yellow trim.

"Would you like hash browns and orange juice?" Karla asked Chell when she saw her in the stairs.

"Sure." Chell answered despite hating hash browns. Karla placed a plate in front of her. Chell slowly shredded the hash brown because it was made of potatoes.

"Look Chell I know you went a long time without food but you really should eat." Karla told her. Chell didn't show any response and continued ripping it apart. Changing the topic Karla said, "I own a donut shop. Would you like a job there? " Chell nodded.

After breakfast Karla pointed out important building to help Chell remember the way there. Chell was looked up at the small brightly colored building surrounded by a gray environment. It looked so out of place. Karla matched the building perfectly.

"Step into this office and I'll get you your uniform." Karla said. Chell walked in and sat in the chair beside the door. The office was small and messy. It had a computer with the main page being the website for the shop. Karla soon walked in. "Here you go." Karla handed her the clothing. "The restrooms are over there. You can put your uniform on in there and make sure you wash your hands. Just leave your clothes in my office."

"Actually," Chell said, "is there a chance I can burn them?"

"I suppose you could burn them after work."

They had arrived an hour early. During that hour Karla showed her how to work the cash register and taught her how to package donuts. Shortly after they arrived the two other people who worked there showed up but Chell didn't interact with them. She was paid 9 dollars an hour, which would add up quickly. She would be able to by her own apartment in about 2 months.

The entire day Chell was planning on how she would be able to get Wheatley back. It wasn't going to be easy since she didn't have a portal gun or support from anyone. She hadn't told Karla about her plan. So far the only idea Chell had was head back to the Enrichment Center and demand that GLaDOS bring Wheatley back without talking. Chell didn't care if GLaDOS ran her through more tests before she brought the little, moron back. Chell wasn't sure why she wanted him back. It was probably because he had tried to treat her as a friend when she first met him.

"Chell," Karla said, "can you take those chocolate donuts over there and fill them with cream?" Chell didn't respond, she just walked over and started filling the donuts. The first part of her plan was to stop talking again. She wanted to mess GLaDOS' data up as much as she could and not talking would be noted on her file.

Karla noticed Chell's dreamy, romantic attitude from watching and reading so many romances. It made her wonder what was going on in Chell's head. She obviously wasn't very open with her feelings. She watched her try to fill the donuts with cream but get her hands covered in it.

Chell was plotting while she filled the pastries. She realized that Karla would get suspicious if she randomly didn't show up for work. It would also take her a long time to walk back to Aperture, time she couldn't waste. That's when she realized every second Wheatley was going farther into space. He could hit by an asteroid or deactivate himself. She was terrified by thinking of all the terrible things that could happen she missed filling the donut with cream and got her hand instead. Picking up a rag she quickly wiped her hands off hoping no one had noticed.

After work they walked home. Chell didn't pay any attention to Karla. That only made Karla want to know what Chell was thinking more. When they arrived at Karla's house Karla turned to Chell.

"So, Chell what boy do you have your eye on?" Karla questioned Chell. You could imagine Chell's surprise. How had she figured that out? Although Chell saw Karla as being her mother, another adopted mother, and Chell had learned mothers seemed to know everything.

"Um… you uh… wouldn't know him. He's far away from here." Chell answered, happy she didn't have to lie.

"That wasn't the answer I wanted Chell. Is he- oh, is he the deranged scientist you were talking about. A little rough but I think you can work past it. You should-"

"NO! Karla, why would I like him? He could be the same age as my dad!" Chell yelled back at Karla.

"Then who is he?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"I don't want you to be unbelievably lonely like me. Having to watch and read pointless happily ever afters because I don't have my own. I should have told Jerry I loved him before he signed up to be put in a core, then he wouldn't have died from the procedure."

"I completely forgot to tell you about Jerry the Nanobot! He probably survived it!" Chell was so surprised. That made her think if Jerry was once human why couldn't Wheatley also be human! Chell looked to Karla to tell her about how they could go back to Aperture and get Jerry, Wheatley, and maybe even all the cores back with them but Karla was crying on the couch. "No! Don't cry Karla! We can go get them. It's not a problem." Karla looked up at Chell as if she had told a poor person was told they were rich.

"Okay. But uh… Chell, who do _you _like?"


	3. Chapter 3 Who Do You Like?

**Chapter 3**- Who Do You Like?

"Well, he has the cutest, British accent." Chell said somewhat embarrassed.

"Oh really." Karla replied motioning for her to continue.

"And he is known to be a moron."

"Ah, morons the most scientific."

"Anyway he is at Aperture like Jerry!" Chell was excited she could go get Wheatley and Jerry then they could finally go to court.

"So, if were to get them we have to go back to Aperture. Doesn't that mean we have a slight possibility of well you know dying?" Karla was terrified of Aperture and Chell couldn't object to being terrified her self.

"Yes but I'm not scared of spending hundreds of more years there. Cryogenic storage isn't that bad." Chell tried not to scare Karla out of returning to Aperture one last time.

"I know it is not bad. I was in storage for a while myself."

"You were in suspension!" Chell was amazed although it had been quite some time. Karla couldn't have live that long if she had quit in the 80s.

"Yes it was about 15 years after I quit. Our competing business was having issues and I went to Aperture to see if the people there were excited. When I arrived no one was sitting at the front desk. The light was flickering. It was a like the beginning of a horror movie and I was about to be murdered but I continued walking. There was the smell of death mixed with what I now guess was the smell of neurotoxin. I turned around ready to run but there was a purple robot, which from your story I guess was the party escort bot. The room was flooded with a sleeping vapor. Then I woke up a few years ago in a room filled with dead people still in suspension. I found a way out of that decaying building as quickly as I could."

Karla was still definitely willing to go to get Jerry back. Just as willing as Chell was about getting Wheatley back.

"We can head to Aperture in the morning. If you drive us there it will take a lot less time. It would be better if I had someone to talk for me so you coming is better than I thought it would be." Chell started to rattle her plan off to Karla.

"Wait so you were planning to go without me?" Karla was surprised when Chell had suggested that they should go back to Aperture but was much more taken aback that she was going to go without telling her.

"I might have thought that going without you or telling you would have been a little bit more…productive. But, at least that means I came up with ideas for us to work with so don't be disappointed." Chell really did think that Karla wouldn't have allowed her to go. "Anyway," Chell continued when she saw Karla's petrifying stare, "we should go to bed early tonight and have food packed for the morning. Then we can spend all day tomorrow at Aperture, unfortunately."

Chell went to the kitchen and began to pack a bag with assorted snacks. She could almost hear GLaDOS saying 'Of course _you_ go to deal with the food'. Karla packed them clothes then she made a proper meal. They had medium-well steaks with baked potatoes drenched in ranch and bacon bits and applesauce on the side. Chell ate it as quickly as she could and burnt her tongue repeatedly. She immediately went to bed without having any cake for dessert.

That night Chell had a much better but very unrealistic dream. Instead of having to let go of Wheatley GLaDOS let both of the come back. Then GLaDOS gave Wheatley a human body and they left the facility together. Although just because something is unrealistic doesn't mean it can't happen.


	4. Chapter 4 Weight Variances

Chapter 4-Weight Variances

Chell woke up at four that morning despite that they wouldn't be leaving until six. The first task on her list that morning was to burn her testing uniform. She went to the small, decorative fireplace that the cat was curled up in front of. She threw the clothes onto the ashy wood and pulled out a box of matches she found while walking through the abandoned offices in Aperture. The cat carefully watched the flame; its eyes glistened in the dark room. She quickly set fire to the outfit. With her Companion Cube by her side she watched it curl into ashes.

The next part to Chell's list was to bathe. She didn't know why Karla hadn't addressed hygiene when she first met her. Chell had tried to freshen up the best she could at the donut store bathroom but it hadn't done much obviously. Chell acted like an actual girl when in the bathroom; she spent over an hour in there. When she was done her hair was just as soft as it had been when her parents took her to work. Chell wore an old pair of jeans Karla gave her and a ragged sweatshirt with a picture of a heart on it.

For the remaining time (which wasn't that long because of her shower) she made sure everything she needed was in the car. She had food, bottles of water, pencil, paper, blankets, a phone, a change of clothes, and a first aid kit. They weren't taking any chances. Chell made sure Karla's cat had enough food for while they were gone.

Right before Karla woke up Chell made some toast and got two bananas for them to eat. Chell quickly ate her minuscule breakfast. She stood in front of Karla's room to hand her breakfast. When Karla came out Chell handed her the meal then ran to the car to start it. Her parents had often had her start the car so she was used to it. Chell waited impatiently in the car although Karla was out with-in a few minuets.

Chell was happy to see that they were so close to the facility. They were there in about 20 minuets but that included speeding. When she saw the small shed in center of that field it brought back every memory of Aperture. She almost regretted coming but it was for Wheatley.

Karla swung the door open and they both walked inside. The elevator immediately began going down. It took them directly to GLaDOS' chamber.

"Oh," GLaDOS said to Chell, "I thought the elevator came down a little bit faster this time but that makes sense seeing you." GLaDOS turned to Karla "I see you brought an overweight friend with you. What were trying to do? Cover up your own weight. That doesn't work, I can detect very high variances." Karla looked very offended. Chell tried not to show any emotion at all.

"Excuse me," Karla said, "I'm here to see if I can meet Jerry. I think he is a nanobot." GLaDOS began to go through both Karla and Jerry's files. They were both previously Aperture employees.

"Well," GLaDOS said while looking at Jerry's file, "it says here that Jerry's body was destroyed during the procedure however he still has memories of his previous life. I could delete the memory of some random person who will be testing for me soon enough and upload his memories." Karla was thrilled that he remembered him previous life. "I could but why would I want to." Chell took out pencil and paper and quickly wrote something on it and handed it to Karla.

"To forward the cause of science." Karla read, "You can practice A.I to human. So far you only know that human to A.I works."

"So you actually have some form of logical thought." GLaDOS was looking directly at Chell as she said it, "I'm truly surprised that you would think to bring something like that up. I suppose I could try it on Jerry then throw him along with the both of you into testing." Chell went right back to writing. Karla read it over Chell's shoulder.

"Maybe you should try it on someone else first, in case it doesn't work. Another core would work well." That was a great point Karla hadn't even thought of.

"You really think I would fail? Since you care enough to come back I guess I will. I have five personalities I could try. Four were burnt because of _someone_ but I was able to recover them. The other one is corrupt so that could be interesting." GLaDOS seemed rather offended that Chell doubted her. Five tubes came into the room, each dropping a personality core. The room was flooded with the sound of snarls, questions, facts, and random cake ingredients. Chell wrote a little more.

"Why not try it on the cores in space?" Karla thought that was an excellent way to get the cores back. "You could upload all the cores into a human body and have them test for you!"

"I'll be honest I really don't want to test you again." GLaDOS was looking at Chell, "After all you have done I think you would agree. If I do what you propose I end up with nine test subjects, ten if I keep your friend. Although I have a feeling all the corrupted cores in space, one specifically, won't test very well."

"Okay enough!" Chell yelled, "We came here for Wheatley and Jerry and we're not leaving until you bring them out here in human form. You can say he is a moron all you want, you can say I'm fat all you want but we will be waiting right here for you to decide what to do. Go ahead and pour neurotoxin in here. At this point I don't care!" Karla and GLaDOS were surprised to hear Chell talk.

"Noted: Chell [REDACTED] can speak. So you didn't just come for Jerry. No of course you wouldn't. You're selfish like that, according to Wheatley. Can't you just be happy with the cube?"

"I view the Companion Cube as a friend, not in a romantic way." Chell said.

"You view Wheatley in a romantic way? Ah, a moron and a fatty such an adorable couple. Well, if I did save him I will torture him for a little while then you can take him and Jerry and leave. Don't expect to be able to come back I will make sure you can't get in any of the entrances. GLaDOS responded.

"You said 'will'." Chell noted, "Why would you bring him back and why would you let me go? Is there a chance you don't completely hate me?" GLaDOS didn't respond. Instead she started the procedure on the Fact Core.

"Fact Sphere: corrupted core, no human conscious uploaded. Are you ready to start the procedure? The Announcer asked.


	5. Chapter 5 AI to Human

**Chapter 5**- A.I to Human

"Go right ahead," GLaDOS answered, "the quicker you finish this the quicker I can get rid of you two.

"Fact: This will hurt a lot." The Fact Core said right before it started. He wasn't as dramatic as the others and didn't scream. GLaDOS brought up a cryo-pod containing the Fact Core as a human. A man with light pink eyes stepped out of it.

"See he is perfectly okay. The procedure just changes eye color." GLaDOS told them, "Start the next procedure and locate the coordinates of the Intelligence Dampening Sphere." The Cake Core was next in line. Soon a woman with long, wavy, blond hair stepped out of the cryo-pod.

The rest of the transfers happened over the next hour. GLaDOS was busy locating Wheatley, Space Core, and Adventure Core she didn't notice how quickly the transferred cores began acting more human. Chell gave each of them human names when they stepped out of the pod. She called the Fact Core Craig because of a fact he had told her when she was attaching him to Wheatley.

Chell called the Cake Core Cherrie Baker. It seemed fitting, as she could definitely be a baker and Cherrie because of the cherries on the cake. Craig seemed rather fond of Cherrie. Well that was obvious because he was constantly complementing her. He seemed to actually listen to her and learn about cake.

"Fact: You are the prettiest girl here." Craig stated to Cherrie. Chell rolled her eyes and watched as the human Curiosity Core stepped out. Her hair was short, curly, and red. Her eyes were light orange. She wobbled over to Chell.

"Hi! What's my name?" Chell thought she looked like one of the girls from Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. The announcer had said no human conscious had been uploaded so GLaDOS probably deleted all the memories from one of the young girls.

"Umm… How about Estella or-" Chell was interrupted.

"Estella Orr is a great name! What is the origin? Is it Italian?" The Curiosity Core asked a lot more questions to which Chell answered 'I don't know'. After so long Estella found there were problems with talking so much. "My throat is dry and it hurts!" She stopped talking after that.

The next core was Morality. She had long, straight, black hair and her eyes were a beautiful shade of violet. The announcer said a human conscious had been uploaded but the memories were lost in the process. She had no memory of being human. Chell looked at the lab coat she was wearing. The word Rose was the only thing that could be read.

"Does Rosette Love sound like a good name?" Chell asked. The Morality Core smiled and nodded. She went over by Craig and Cherrie and sat down. Estella got up and walked over to where Rosette was sitting and hugged her. It was obvious Estella viewed her as a mother figure.

"Intelligence Dampening Sphere located. Space Sphere and Adventure Sphere located near it. Would you like to teleport all spheres in that area here?" The announcer asked.

"Go ahead. Start the next transfer while you're at it." GLaDOS ordered. Shortly after the next cryogenic storage pod came up. A man with spiked brown hair and glaring red eyes stepped out. Rosette immediately ran over and hugged him. Chell smiled. Would it be like that when she reunited with Wheatley? Morality then led him over to Chell to give him a name that suited him. Chell was completely out of ideas so she took the first name that came into her mind.

"Roger Cross." Chell sighed. He looked as though he was about to kill her but Rosette smiled and led him to Craig and Cherrie.

"Start the nanobot procedure now." GLaDOS said. Karla gave her a look. She had specifically waited as long as she could to transfer Jerry. "At least I decided to do this Karla the Complainer. I could have flooded the room with neurotoxin when I saw you two, or worse." That one took the longest amount of time although GLaDOS said it was because he was a nanobot not because she was trying to upset Karla.

Eventually there was ding sound and Karla got up and walked to where the cryo-pods had been coming up. Of course GLaDOS decided to be difficult and raised the pod further away. Jerry stepped out and looked directly at Karla. He had no idea how she felt about him. He waved and Karla rushed up to him although she was sad he looked different. She embraced him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Despite how far away Chell was she could see his face turn red.

"So I guess this means we're together then." Jerry said.

"Well, of course." Karla responded. It was about then that the Space Core was transported there.

"Wanna go to Earth, wanna go to Earth." The Space Core repeated. He made a gasp noise then said, "Wanna go to space."

"Space!" Estella yelled. She ran over and picked him up. "Was space nice? Did you meet the sun? What did you say to him?" GLaDOS took the Space Core from her little arms and put him into the receptacle. It took a lot less time. He stepped out shortly. Space Core looked to be about the same age as Estella. His hair was a darker blond color and his eyes were a darker orange. Estella led him over to Chell where she gave him an appropriate name.

"Lucas Armstrong." He seemed very pleased and marched off. The Adventure Core appeared next. Chell sighed and glared at GLaDOS, she had obviously made sure Wheatley was last like she had done with Jerry.

"I am back from my tiring adventure ladies. Give me some time to recover and then you can come and tell me how much you missed me." No one looked up to acknowledge him. He continued to go on about the depths of space but only Lucas looked up at the word space. That transfer took the shortest amount of time. The storage pod came up right beside Chell.

"Thanks a lot." Chell yelled to GLaDOS. Rick had a military style hair cut. His eyes were a nice green. He looked at his human body.

"Even more handsome than I thought." He said. Chell rolled her eyes.

"Fact: Craig is the most handsome human." Craig yelled from across the room. Cherrie nodded agreeing with him. Rick continued talking to Chell despite her not paying any attention. It took Wheatley a while to appear but Chell waited patiently.

"I'm sorry it was such a long wait. I had to punish him. Although the sad part is I had to drastically speed it up. The only good part about transferring him to human is that I know it will hurt him." GLaDOS said then started the procedure before Chell had a chance to talk with him. The storage pod was on the opposite side of the room. "You could use a little exercise." GLaDOS said.

Chell ran over to where he was, already admiring his light blond hair. He began apologizing habitually when he saw her.

"I'm so sorry for trying to murder you repeatedly. You know I wouldn't do that as my own choice right. Of course you do. You're not a moron, like me." Chell couldn't kiss him on the cheek Karla style; he was much taller than her. Instead she settled for a hug.

"I love you." Chell said.

"I didn't know you had a voice. Sorry for saying you had brain damage I- wait did you say 'I love you'?" Chell looked up at him and smiled and he hugged her back.

"I'm sorry for ruining the moment. Oh, right you don't need my fake apology, you know I'm thrilled about kicking you out. Get on the elevator all four of you and don't even think of trying to find a way back." GLaDOS brought the lift down and Karla, Jerry, Chell, and Wheatley all got on.

Wheatley bent down to get a good look at Chell. She quickly kissed his cheek as the elevator started to go up.

"Well, I love you too Chell." Wheatley was blushing. Chell held his hand tightly. "I suppose I always did."

Authors Note: This story is definitely not over. This short series however is. I will continue writing Chelley pairings and Spacosity, Angraliry, and FactxCake.


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